Andrew Cuomo's Unfavorables Hit A New High In Latest Siena Poll

Cuomo's up in the race for governor- but so are his unfavorables:

ALBANY—With less than two weeks until the Nov. 4 election, Governor Andrew Cuomo has a 21-point lead over Republican opponent Rob Astorino, though his unfavorable ratings remain high, according to a Siena Institute poll released this morning.

The poll of 748 likely voters shows Cuomo leading Astorino 54 percent to 33 percent.

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While the poll indicates Cuomo is likely to win by a healthy margin, it appears less likely he'll reach the 63 percent threshold he achieved in 2010, in part because Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins is polling at about 9 percent.

According to the poll, 54 percent of voters view Cuomo favorably, while a record high 43 percent view him unfavorably.

Voters also have a harsher assessment than ever of the governor’s performance, the poll found. A record high percentage—25 percent—said they thought Cuomo had done a “poor” job in office so far, while the percentage who said they believed his performance had been “good” stood at 34 percent, his lowest numbers on that question since he took office. Nine percent said they thought Cuomo was doing an “excellent” job while 32 percent rated his job performance as “fair,” the poll found.

Cuomo's popularity rests in many ways with women and I'll have more about that later.

Suffice to say, Cuomo's in the driver's seat in the race, but his negatives are rising, and he isn't going to top his 2010 totals with Howie Hawkins garnering close to double digit support.